Irked by the “unilateral” denial of permission for reclamation of over 500-cent paddy field for a bridge by an expert committee, A.K. Balan, the Minister for Law, has written to the Agriculture Minister seeking steps to facilitate the land conversion.
Mr. Balan has approached his cabinet colleagues for the reclamation of paddy field for the construction of Njavalinkadavu bridge across Bharathapuzha connecting the Tharoor and Ottappalam constituencies. On his part, the Agriculture Minister has forwarded the letter to the State Agriculture Production Commissioner.
Though the local-level monitoring committee on the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act 2008, had cleared the request, it was shot down by the State committee.
The State committee was asked to revisit its report following the Minister’s letter. The letter and the report of the State Committee are likely to come up for consideration of the committee meeting on Monday.
In his letter, which was accessed by The Hindu, Mr. Balan stated that the State committee rejected the request for reclamation without carrying out any inspections.
Of the 563.68 cents that has to be acquired, 504.86 cents are paddy fields and the farmers are willing to part with their holding. The government had earmarked ₹4.30 crore for land acquisition, the letter said.
Complaint filed
Responding to the developments, Mr. Balan said he had filed a complaint with the Agriculture Minister regarding the report of the State committee. The reclamation would not lead to any environmental impacts.
Defending the proposal, Mr. Balan said development projects could not be shelved in the name of environment. The proposed bridge would bring development to the area besides cutting down the distance between the two constituencies by 15km, he said.
Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunilkumar, when contacted, said the department was not in favour of reclaiming paddy fields. The department could not permit the reclamation of paddy fields and the applications for such conversions were forwarded to the committee for its report, he said.
